From the Stump

Nature’s bounty can make a person feel rich

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Sunday September 9, 2012 6:20 AM

This has been a wild and crazy summer in the Switzer backyard.

After I tell you about it, you will think, “Why doesn’t he get a life?”

I wrote earlier that a hummingbird didn’t start coming regularly to my feeder until mid-July,
after I had just about given up hope. It was a female.

Then, after a bit, I noticed that two hummingbirds were fighting over the feeder. The second one
appeared to be an immature male because it had specks of ruby feathers just beginning to appear on
its throat. I was elated because I usually can count the number of hummingbirds at my feeder on one
finger.

A little later, I was trying to take photos of the monarch and painted-lady butterflies on my
butterfly bush when I noticed a hummingbird with a full ruby-colored throat — an adult male —
hovering at the feeder. After a slow start, I now had at least three! Some people get gobs, but
that was good for me.

Also in the backyard, this has been my all-time-record summer for tomato production. I have had
to water my nine plants, but they have produced so many tomatoes that I have given hundreds to my
family and friends. On top of that, we have pureed and frozen some to eat this winter and have made
chili and vegetable soup.

A garden-store owner told me tomatoes love this summer’s heat, and that’s why we are having a
bountiful year. He said the hot temperatures cause the plants to set more fruit. The tomatoes have
been a bit smaller than usual because of the drought, but they taste wonderful.

Lastly, I wrote awhile back that the Guernsey County Fine Arts and Crappie Fishing Society had
gone to Lake Erie for some walleye fishing but couldn’t leave the dock because of 8-foot waves.

Four of us returned later and went out into the lake from a marina in the Ashtabula River. Once
we got to the place where we were going to fish, far off shore, the sun was just beginning to rise,
and the sky was bright red.

There’s a saying: “Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.” That’s no lie. Soon, there were
5-foot waves, and rain was coming down hard. We were rock ’n’ rolling, but our charter captain
said, “The fish don’t know it’s raining.”

We each proceeded to catch our six-fish limit by 10 a.m. and headed back to the dock. The fish
averaged 7 pounds each with the biggest one a 10-pounder. My wife and I froze lots of meals so we
can eat fish all winter.

Folks who wanted to stay closer to the shore because of the weather were catching nice
perch.

Sadly, Labor Day signals the end of the season for most pleasure boaters. Only hard-core
fishermen will be going out now.